“The Breakfast Crunchwrap is the cornerstone of the breakfast menu. That being the case, cheese plays a huge role in breakfast,” said Heather Mottershaw with Taco Bell’s Food and Beverage Innovation Team.

“Cheese plays an important role in the Breakfast Crunchwrap. We actually learned that after the launch,” said Mottershaw.

“We have an ounce of Cheddar cheese on the Crunchwrap. However, we didn’t melt it at first, and simply grilled it,” said the 13-year Taco Bell veteran. “Eventually from consumer focus groups we learned that melted cheese is really important in the morning. That caused us to go back and redevelop the Crunchwrap, and we now melt cheese in the morning,” said the Taco Bell specialist about the 50 million customers who weekly visit its 7,000 stores.

Taco Bell launched its breakfast menu 18 months ago.

“Breakfast has gone really well for us. It’s opened a completely new part of the day for us,” said Mottershaw.

As for Taco Bell’s breakfast menu, it’s a big deal for dairy, with 90 percent of its menu items featuring dairy products.

To learn more about Taco Bell’s breakfast menu anchored by the Breakfast Crunchwrap, listen to audio comments from Taco Bell’s Heather Mottershaw who has 13 years of expertise with Taco Bell. A note to the listeners, at times there are questions from Hoard’s Dairyman Managing Editor Corey Geiger.

This Hoard’s Dairyman Intel article is part of an eight-part Dairy Food Maker series with Taco Bell. It details a partnership that began with Taco Bell and Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) in 2012 and continues to this day with Dairy Checkoff dairy scientists working directly at Taco Bell’s headquarters in the greater Los Angeles, Calif., area.